Thrombotic and Hemorrhagic Incidences in Patients After Discharge from COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: The association between coronavirus infection 2019 (COVID-19) and thrombosis has been explicitly shown through numerous reports that demonstrate high rates of thrombotic complications in infected patients. Recently, much evidence has shown that patients who survived COVID-19 might have a high thrombotic risk after hospital discharge. This current systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to better understand the incidence of thrombosis, bleeding, and mortality rates among patients discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization. METHODS: Using a search strategy that included terms for postdischarge, thrombosis, and COVID-19, 2 investigators independently searched for published articles indexed in the MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus databases that were published before August 2021. Pooled incidences and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using the DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model with a double arcsine transformation. RESULTS: Twenty articles were included in the meta-analysis. They provided a total of 19 461 patients discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization. The weighted pooled incidence of overall thrombosis among the patients was 1.3% (95 CI, 0. 6-2; I(2) 90.5), with a pooled incidence of venous thrombosis of 0.7% (95 CI, 0. 4-1; I(2) 73.9) and a pooled incidence of arterial thrombosis of 0.6% (95 CI, 0. 2-1; I(2) 88.1). The weighted pooled incidences of bleeding and mortality were 0.9% (95 CI, 0. 1-1.9; I(2) 95.1) and 2.8% (95 CI, 0. 6-5; I(2) 98.2), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The incidences of thrombosis and bleeding in patients discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization are comparable to those of medically ill patients.